by Lynne Graham
‘Noel always did have a way with young children.’ The woman at her side spoke softly as she watched her eldest son. ‘He was wonderful with Josh and Honey when they were small too.’ She smiled down at him indulgently before shifting that deep blue gaze back to Cally. ‘It’s the reason I was so happy when he told me the two of you were going to be married; he’s going to make such a wonderful father. Of course—’ she laughed softly ‘—I had no idea this was what he had in mind when he told me I was soon to be a grandmother!’
Cally reluctantly dragged her gaze away from her happily occupied daughter. ‘Look, Mrs Carlt— No, it isn’t Carlton, is it?’ She became flustered as she seemed to be making one gaffe after another where this woman was concerned.
‘It’s Markham, but pleased do call me Hester,’ the other woman invited warmly. ‘And I understand from Noel that you prefer to be called Cally?’
‘Yes,’ she confirmed huskily. ‘But about Lissa—’
‘My dear, please don’t feel you have to explain anything to any of us.’ Hester frowned her concern as she put a reassuring hand on Cally’s arm. ‘I don’t know how much Noel has told you, but I was alone with him until he was ten years old and I met and fell in love with Andrew.’ She smiled across at her husband where he stood laughing at the antics on the carpet. ‘He gave me back my faith in love and the permanence of marriage.’
Cally glanced across at the smiling man who stood so relaxed beside the fireplace watching his stepson, liking his easy smile, the warm glow in his brown eyes, the blond hair that had been inherited by both his children. Honey, Cally also noted, was a female version of Josh: tall and attractive, her blond hair worn long down her back, dressed like a typical teenager in denims and tee shirt.
‘He looks very nice.’ Cally turned back to Hester. ‘It’s just that—’
‘Lissa doesn’t know yet about you and Noel getting married,’ the other woman finished gently. ‘Yes, he told me that, too. But I really don’t think it’s going to be a problem, do you?’ she added as Lissa giggled happily at being tickled by Noel.
No, Cally didn’t think it would be a problem—if she and Noel really were going to be married. Which they weren’t!
But Noel had certainly been busy confiding things to his mother in the few minutes it had taken Cally to dry herself and get dressed, seeming to have covered most of the questions they would probably have been asked by one member of his family or another.
Which was great for Noel. But not so great for her. Because she wasn’t engaged to Noel, and had no intention of marrying him.
Chance would be a fine thing, a little voice inside her mocked.
Where on earth had that come from? Cally wondered dazedly.
After the disaster of her relationship with Michael, she had concentrated all her love and care on Lissa, on giving her the best that she could, consistently refusing any dates that came her way. In fact, she had become so adept at showing her lack of interest that, apart from Noel’s invitation two months ago, she hadn’t even been asked out on a date for the last two years!
So why was she even thinking that chance would be a fine thing?
Just because Noel Carlton, with his obvious wealth and playboy lifestyle, was like no one she had ever met before. Or was ever likely to meet again!
‘Your sister had to leave, I’m afraid,’ Hester commented. ‘Something about getting back to the boys...?’
Cally smiled. ‘Pam’s husband, Brian, and their two little boys.’ Although, if she knew anything about her big sister at all, Pam was going to be on the telephone later today wanting to know exactly what was going on!
‘That’s nice.’ The older woman smiled. ‘Families are important, aren’t they?’
‘Very,’ Cally confirmed with perhaps a little more firmness than she had intended. ‘At least, I think so,’ she added less forcefully.
‘I’m so glad you feel that way.’ Hester nodded, linking her arm with Cally’s. ‘But then I should have known that Noel wouldn’t choose to be with a woman who doesn’t have the same values and interests as he does.’
Cally watched the man in question as he stood up, Lissa held in his arms. Obviously, despite her previous accusations about his not having bothered to be prepared for his family’s arrival, his family was important to him, and there was no doubting that he did have a natural way with Lissa, and didn’t mind in the least that his designer-label clothes were now slightly creased and rumpled. Perhaps he wasn’t such a playboy, after all...?
‘Mummy!’ Lissa cried happily as she spotted her mother, reaching out her arms towards her. ‘I’ve been having such fun.’ She glowed excitedly, her smile revealing that she had recently lost one of her front baby teeth. But, if anything, it just made her more endearing.
‘I can see that,’ Cally murmured indulgently as she held her daughter in her arms, smiling up at her.
‘And Noel says we’re all going out for a meal together tonight,’ Lissa told her ecstatically before turning to bestow a heart-melting smile on Noel as the benefactor of this unexpected treat.
Cally’s smile faded somewhat as she felt something begin to tighten around her, trapping her in a situation that was rapidly spiralling out of her control.
Much as she knew Lissa would love to go, she knew it wasn’t a good idea for them to go out with Noel’s family for a meal, tonight or any other time, that the sooner Noel told his family the truth about his broken engagement, the better it would be for everyone.
‘That sounds nice, darling,’ she answered her daughter noncommittally. ‘Noel, would you mind walking back to the gatehouse with us?’ She turned to him, her gaze warning him against refusing. ‘There are a couple of things we need to talk about,’ she added determinedly as she saw Noel’s younger brother give him a teasing grin at what must appear to be signs of domesticity.
‘Of course,’ Noel complied lightly as he moved to her side, at the same time shooting Josh a scathing glance. ‘Don’t say another word until we get outside,’ he muttered for Cally’s ears only.
‘I have no intention of doing so,’ she assured him with a pointed look at Lissa.
‘I’m afraid it was my idea about going out this evening,’ Hester put in concernedly, obviously wondering if she had committed a faux pas of some kind. ‘I do hope the two of you didn’t have other plans? It’s just that Noel says you’ve been working very hard to make everything so nice for us, that I thought it was the least we could do for you in return...?’
Cally felt the trap tightening even further, knowing she could hardly refuse to go out with them this evening when it was their way of saying thank you for all the hard work she had done on the house the last couple of days.
They couldn’t possibly know that a cheque from Noel would more than compensate for that!
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘OKAY, SO WHAT DO we do now?’ Cally asked as she and Noel sat at her kitchen table a short time later drinking coffee, Lissa safely ensconced in front of the television for a few minutes with juice and biscuits.
Noel shrugged. ‘Well, the general consensus seems to be that we’re all going out for a meal later this evening—’
‘That isn’t what I meant, and you know it!’ Cally cut in irritably. ‘I like your family, Noel, they’re nice—’
‘Thank you.’
She sighed. ‘I didn’t say that included you!’
‘No,’ he accepted softly, bending towards her slightly. ‘But you do like me, don’t you?’ he murmured huskily.
‘No, I—yes,’ she sighed in defeat as he raised sceptical dark brows at the vehemence of her denial. ‘But I was actually referring to the fact that I don’t like deceiving your family in this way—’
‘Then let’s not deceive them,’ he suggested, getting up to go down on one knee in front of her on the tiled floor, taking on
e of her hands firmly in his. ‘Cally Turner, will you marry me?’
Cally stared down at him in horror. ‘Will you get up?’ she instructed desperately, pulling her hand away from his, all the time casting worried glances in Lissa’s direction as she sat only feet away from them in the sitting-room.
‘Not until you give me an answer.’ Noel remained on one knee.
Cally could feel the heat of confusion in her flushed cheeks. ‘You look ridiculous,’ she spluttered agitatedly.
‘I know.’ He grinned unconcernedly. ‘But I intend staying this way until you give me an answer,’ he assured her happily.
She looked at him speechlessly now, totally nonplussed by the unexpectedness of what he was doing.
But what if his proposal had been a real one...?
She would still have said no!
Wouldn’t she...?
The problem was, she didn’t know any more. Until yesterday she had thought her nearest neighbour to be an arrogant show-off, with his fast cars and helicopters arriving on the front lawn. An arrogant show-off who didn’t make good on his invitations! But this last couple of days she had come to know what he was really like. And, if she were honest, she did like him!
Noel had shown her yesterday that he wasn’t afraid of hard work. Had proved by his actions this last couple of days that he was a caring, considerate son. Had got down on the floor and played with Lissa as if he were six instead of in his mid-thirties. And as for the way he kissed...!
Cally shied away from remembering that, determined to think only of the fact that he wasn’t really serious about this marriage proposal, that until recently he had actually been engaged to marry someone else.
She stood up abruptly, stepping round him to move to the far side of the small kitchen. ‘My answer is no,’ she said. ‘And I think, the sooner you tell your family the truth, the better it will be for everyone.’
She could only feel relief as he got slowly to his feet, although she wasn’t quite so sure about that emotion as he came to stand in front of her, so close she could feel the warmth emanating from his body.
She swallowed hard as she looked up at him. ‘In the circumstances, I’m more than a little interested in knowing the truth myself,’ she said huskily, pressing back into the work unit as far as she could go in an effort to put more distance between Noel’s body and her own.
‘What do you want to know?’ He gave her a considering look, one hand moving up to cup the side of her face, his thumb moving lightly across her lips.
Cally’s breath lodged somewhere in her throat as she desperately tried to resist the impulse to run her tongue across her lips where he had just touched, her gaze locked with his. ‘Your fiancée,’ she managed to speak gruffly.
His mouth tightened. ‘Ex-fiancée,’ he corrected, shaking his head. ‘Have you ever thought that someone was something only to realize later on that you had made a terrible mistake and they weren’t what you thought they were at all?’
She glanced across at Lissa as she sat enraptured in the cartoon showing on the television. ‘Oh, yes,’ she acknowledged ruefully.
Noel followed that glance. ‘Lissa’s father?’
Cally nodded. ‘I—he—’ She gave a deep sigh. ‘I thought he was warm, caring, and single.’
‘And?’ Noel prompted softly, his gaze searching the paleness of her face.
‘He was selfish, immature—and married!’ She grimaced self-derisively, still able to remember her humiliation when Michael’s wife had paid her a visit, hugely pregnant with their second child, to lay prior claim to him.
After that, as far as Cally had been concerned, Michael’s wife had been welcome to him!
‘Ah.’ Noel nodded understandingly.
‘And Carol?’ she asked tentatively, amazed at how painful she still found it to talk of her own past disillusionment.
‘Well, I thought she was warm, caring, and single, too,’ Noel said dryly. ‘It turned out that she was single, but it didn’t take me too long to realize the warmth and caring were sadly lacking!’ He gave a disgusted shake of his head.
‘Long enough for you to become engaged to her,’ Cally pointed out, relieved to have the conversation moved away from her own past misjudgement concerning someone’s character.
‘Hmm.’ He frowned.
Cally gave him a considering look. ‘Noel...?’ She sensed there was something he wasn’t saying.
He straightened, his hand falling away from her face. ‘It’s nothing,’ he dismissed briskly.
That wasn’t what Cally believed at all. She felt sure there was something he wasn’t telling her about his engagement. Not that it was really any of her business—except that, as far as his family was concerned, she now seemed to be engaged to him herself!
‘Is it really going to be that much of a problem for you and Lissa to come out to dinner with the family this evening?’ Noel asked.
‘Not a problem, no...’ From what she had seen of his family, they were all very nice; she just didn’t think it was a good idea to perpetrate this deception about her supposed engagement to Noel. ‘But couldn’t you just tell them the truth?’ She sighed.
To her surprise, Noel grinned widely. ‘Who knows, maybe if I delay doing that long enough, it will no longer be the truth!’
Cally frowned as she tried to follow his train of thought, her eyes widening incredulously as she realized exactly what he meant. ‘I told you not to be ridiculous,’ she snapped, not finding anything in the least funny about his proposal of marriage.
He shrugged. ‘It seems like a pretty good idea to me.’
‘That’s because you’re bordering on the insane,’ Cally told him unsympathetically, clasping his shoulders to turn him firmly in the direction of the back door. ‘Okay, we’ll come out to dinner with all of you this evening,’ she told him once he was standing outside the house, knowing that to do anything else would be a great disappointment to Lissa. And she tried never to disappoint her beloved daughter. ‘But only on the condition that you tell your family the truth in the very near future!’ she added sternly.
Noel’s grin went from ear to ear, his eyes dark with approval. ‘You really are a beautiful woman, Cally Turner!’ he told her appreciatively before taking a determined step forward and kissing her forcefully on the lips.
She didn’t know whether she was beautiful or not, Cally thought confusedly as the kiss continued and she melted into the hardness of his body, but she did know she was falling in love with this man. No—that she was already in love with him!
She pulled sharply back as this shocking realization hit her with the force of a physical blow, staring up at Noel as if she had never seen him before.
And maybe she hadn’t. She had spent so long denying that she wanted any man in her life, that there could be a ‘perfect’ man for her out there, that she had almost missed seeing him at all!
Noel was everything she had ever wanted in a man, sure of himself, charming, caring, patient, funny. And the strange thing was, he seemed to find her equally fascinating.
‘Cally?’ he questioned huskily now.
She gave a shake of her head, pushing those thoughts very firmly from her mind. Because Noel was also very rich, very sophisticated—and, until recently, had been engaged to marry someone else!
‘Nothing,’ she dismissed quickly, stepping back into the house. ‘What time do you expect to go out?’
Noel continued to look at her for long, timeless seconds, finally saying, ‘I’ll pick you and Lissa up in about an hour, if that’s okay?’
‘Fine,’ Cally accepted shortly, moving back to firmly close the door in his face.
Which was when she realized just how much she was shaking, her legs feeling weak, her whole body trembling with—with what?
With the realization that she had fal
len in love with a man who could never be hers!
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT?’ Noel queried softly an hour or so later as they drove to the pub where they had decided to eat, Lissa safely strapped into the back seat. The rest of the family were following behind in the estate car they had hired for the duration of their stay.
‘Fine,’ Cally replied tersely—if you could call being given the third degree by your older sister for the last half an hour ‘all right’!
Pam had been absolutely fascinated by the Markham family, even more so by what Cally had been doing upstairs with Noel when she had arrived at the house with Lissa earlier. Not that Cally intended satisfying her sister’s curiosity about that!
She had no idea how to explain to Pam that for the moment she was trapped in a false engagement in an effort to try to salvage something of their company’s reputation. Never mind her own!
‘No Ferrari this evening?’ Cally mocked in an effort to change the subject, although the Range Rover he drove now was very luxurious too.
‘No room for Lissa. Actually, I’m thinking of getting rid of the Ferrari.’
Cally tensed warily. ‘Why?’
Noel gave a shrug. ‘It isn’t exactly a family car, now, is it?’
Cally felt slightly breathless for a moment, quickly fighting down that feeling as she answered him mockingly. ‘But then, you don’t exactly have a family, do you?’
He gave her a sideways glance. ‘That could easily change.’
‘Not so easily as you might think,’ she came back sharply—and then wondered if she weren’t just making a fool of herself; Noel couldn’t have been any more serious about that marriage proposal earlier than his remarks were now.
He smiled. ‘I’ve never minded fighting for what I want.’
And his gaze said he wanted her! But he couldn’t be serious. Not really. This all had to be just a game to him.
She gave a dismissive shrug, deliberately turning away from him to look out the window at the darkness beyond.